“The weather” and the “choice of materials” would have prevented the incendiary devices from exploding on the Northvolt site in Montérégie, around ten days ago, according to the anonymous claims of this sabotage attempt.
Earlier this month, incendiary objects were placed under machinery at the site of Northvolt’s future battery factory, seriously endangering employees, according to the company.
The Richelieu–Saint−Laurent Intermunicipal Police Authority has also opened an investigation.
Thursday, a claim published on the Montréal Contre−information site indicates that on May 5, incendiary devices were placed under machinery “with the aim of damaging the machines and reducing the ability of the project to continue.”
The anonymous claimants explained the failures of their sabotage attempt with this statement: “If there is one thing to remember, it is that when choosing materials, one must take into account how the weather conditions (humidity high temperature or rain) can reduce the chances of an appliance catching fire.
The vandals denounce “the Quebec state” which “has already abandoned its own environmental regulations and turns a blind eye while Northvolt contravenes a number of laws and codes”.
They also protest against possible lithium mines in northern Quebec and the impact that mineral extraction would have on the indigenous peoples who live in this territory.
The Montreal Counter−information site aspires to “provide Montreal anarchists with a space to disseminate their ideas and actions across overlapping networks and trends.”
Repeated sabotage
This is not the first time that acts of sabotage have been committed on the site of the future battery factory.
At the end of February, police opened an investigation after individuals laid nailed carpets on the site. A vehicle was also damaged, according to police.
A month earlier, people had also driven nails into trees that the Swedish company planned to cut down.
On January 23, the anonymous authors of this sabotage published a demand on Montréal Contre-information, which contained a call for “a broad mobilization against the destructive project that constitutes the Northvolt mega-factory” and asked to “attack to this machine for crushing living things by targeting its weak points.”